Some
people actually debate about what "Film Noir" means and when the "Film Noir
Period" actually began and ended. Some debate that the "First-Best" noir
film was "The Maltese Falcon," and the "Last-Best" Film Noir was Mickey
Spillane's "Kiss Me Deadly." I'm firmly in that camp and I enjoy writing
about those that come in between. Hence - The Fedora Chronicles Hollywood
Page...
"Film Noir" refers to the film's darkness in both content and the literal
way it was filmed with the subdued lighting and excessive (if not joyful in
a maniacal way) use of shadows. The protagonist is always a flawed character
who is either very good in a world increasingly gone bad - or is just a
regular Joe who's made bad choices that begins his downfall. Film Noir is
almost too literal in how it portrays the darkness of a cynical world, where
a crime is committed, we find out who did it and the case is solved, but
just like in the real world some of those involved are severely punished
while others don't... often times, the villain literally does get away with
murder. Villains are some times persecuted while the heroes lose through
some personal sacrifice or admission of guilt associated with being human
like the rest of us - with vices such as lust and desire, obsession or
addiction. Film Noir almost always filmed in glorious black and white and
are usually tragedies of the Shakespearian kind - exchanging Old-English
bard-speak with Jazz -Era slang.
The Film Noir Style was born out of an era of an uncertain future when
the world was running amok with fascism in Europe and Asia, war or the
rumors of war, and new technology that brought the word "Atomic" into
every-man's daily language. The thread of nuclear annihilation was coupled
with the fact that men had been replaced at the work-place by the women they
went to war to defend, and the "Red Menace" of communism became the modern
equivalent of the Salem Witch-Hunts from the 1690's.
"Laura" fits perfectly into the mold of "Film Noir," it's about murder,
obsession, unrequited love, class-envy and social status... with maybe just
a hint of the potential for
necrophilia.. [Continued after this trailer...]
Who's Crazy Enough To Fall In Love With A Dead Woman?
Usually,
the word "Creepy" and "thoroughly Entertaining" don't go together in a
positive review for a movie. Unless it's film noir. "Laura" is almost
perfect and essential Film Noir, enjoyable while at the same time making you
question your humanity and what it means to be sane.
Dana Andrews (just off
his prior roll in "The Best Years Of Our Lives") is Detective Lt. Mark
McPherson, a police officer working the murder case of a woman that
apparently everyone loved. In a series of flashbacks during McPherson's
interviews of the suspects, we discover what kind of woman she was, or what
type of woman everyone else THOUGHT she was. You can tell a lot about a
woman by the company she keeps and the characters she surrounds her self
with...
Through the words of others we discover that Gene Tierney's "Laura" is
the type of woman inspires men to be in love... with the idea of being in
love. She's strikingly beautiful and successful with out being aloof, she's
approachable while being painfully honest while suffering neither fools or
rude people. She's the reason why one up-tight elitist snob lightens up, and
why a playboy-opportunist could change his ways and commit to one woman...
yet both of whom are the prime suspects of her murder.
Waldo Lydecker, played by Clifton Webb is the uptight elitist who has his
own radio show and likes to pontificate about what's wrong in the world and
how we would all be better off if we just listened to him and conformed to
his Victorian world-view. He also obsesses about murder - his favorite
crime... There's something about this painfully thin guy that struck me as
being 'soft in the head' and 'light in the loafers,' he appreciated what
Laura taught him how not to be judgmental. Laura tried to teach Lydecker
that the world would be a better place if we tried to be more beautiful on
the inside to the same extent as we try to be so on the outside...
essentially saying that he would do well to take his own advice and actually
be the type of man he talks about being in his columns and on the radio.
Lydecker love for her is more of having Laura more as a trophy and less as a
lover and a wife... he would be validated if only she could love him. Things
get out of hand when she doesn't love him back.
Shelby Carpenter as played by Vincent Price is the obvious "prime
suspect," a womanizer, playboy who leaches off of successful women while
being incapable of fidelity or faithfulness. You just hope this guy is the
real killer! It's Vincent Price! One of the masters of Macabre! You half
expect him to confess to killing her because he had to construct a bride for
a monster he created in his off hours! Alas, that's not the case... there is
no secret lab in Manhattan this time. Mr. Price is a sophisticated and
upwardly mobile opportunist who instinctively knows which wine should be
paired with what meal and which fork to grab with what dish and knows what
sweet nothings to whisper into the ears of women.
Just like the other two men, and everyone else... McPherson falls
in love with Laura, too. Sadly, she's already dead obviously, he takes on
this strange fascination with her and her portrait that hangs over the
mantle. No, really? What Advertising Executive do you know who has a huge
portrait of themselves hanging anywhere in there home? Forget "There's
Something About Laura," how about "There's something incredibly narcissistic
about Laura," isn't there? To me, there's something really insecure about
Laura, she's a beautiful woman and men are attracted to her, but the
painting in her apartment screams volumes about her self doubts.
McPhereson eventually spends the night in her apartment, leaving nothing
touched... at first. Here's a police detective that REALLY gets into his
work! Living at the scene of a crime... Eventually goes so far as to
go through her things like her drawers and closets and even falls a sleep in
one of her chairs in her living room, drinking her liquor, only to be waken
up by...
... let's just say that the person who wakes him makes his obsession a
little less creepy, but not by much.
Otto Preminger crafts this film in much the same way Alfred Hitchcock
would if he filmed this script... just as we almost understand Jimmy
Stewart's character "Det. John 'Scottie' Ferguson" in "Vertigo" and his
obsession with Kim Novak's "Madeleine Elster" character who died... maybe. I
would even like to think for a minute that "Vertigo" was inspired by "Laura"
because of the plot lines are too similar. I digress...
We almost accept McPherson's obsession with Laura. It's really not cool,
but because Laura is one of the most desirable women and men just couldn't
help themselves when she was alive, despite an insecurity or two. Or, maybe
it's that vulnerability that makes her so attractive. Since there are so
many men 'obsessed' with Laura while she lived it stands to reason that
someone was bound to fall in love with her after she died and who better
then the man investigating her murder.
In a normal world, not a film noir one... this would be cause for someone
to put McPherson in for an evaluation... then again this is the same world
where a woman has a giant portrait of herself on display in her apartment...
"Laura" is as close as one can get to a "perfect"
classic movie and as a Suspense-Mystery drama. The acting and dialog keep
what could have been a tedious melodrama moving along with tension, the
cinematography with the use of contrasting light and shadow rivals "Citizen
Kane." This is as close to the best of it's class, up to par with other
essential classics from the era and in many ways it's superior to movies
made now.
But is this good "Film Noir?"
I'm on the fence on that aspect. There are some dark aspects to "Laura"
that bring it close to The Film Noir Genre, but with it's almost happy
ending, all the loose ends tied and the hero walking away with the prize and
the win, it's hard to say if this motion picture belongs in this
classification or not. It has quirky characters, everyone in this movie
(with the exception of maybe two background players) has weird
idiocentricities and fetishes that makes you wonder if nobody is immune to a
little mental illness. The movie allows you to think for a short while that
we're all a little nuts, we all have some aspect of our personality that are
outside the main-stream. And if you over look those aspects of this film
you'll believe that if everyone is not normal, then not normal makes us all
pretty much the same... and then the definition of "normal" simply seizes to
exist.
"Laura" is a film that will get under your skin and will remain in the
back of your mind a while. It's the perfect movie for vintage aficionados
and fedora-junkies who want to see some good lids sported about while a
murder is solved with some questions raised about what morality means and
how arbitrary concepts such as "Good" And "Evil" can be if you're willing to
talk yourself into anything.
Some
people actually debate about what "Film Noir" means and when the "Film Noir
Period" actually began and ended. Some debate that the "First-Best" noir
film was "The Maltese Falcon," and the "Last-Best" Film Noir was Mickey
Spillane's "Kiss Me Deadly." I'm firmly in that camp and I enjoy writing
about those that come in between. Hence - The Fedora Chronicles Hollywood
Page...
Usually,
the word "Creepy" and "thoroughly Entertaining" don't go together in a
positive review for a movie. Unless it's film noir. "Laura" is almost
perfect and essential Film Noir, enjoyable while at the same time making you
question your humanity and what it means to be sane. 
